Beasts and bears

Today was not a complicated travel day, thank heavens. Carolyn and I had a lengthy conversation over breakfast about everything that has happened since Weinstein’s accusers came out. We reacted differently to the lengthening list of accusations (many of which are not as serious as the Weinstein list).

Carolyn worked in the House of Commons (IT research) and had a few glad-hand experiences. Her recollection was that women looked out for each other and warned of creepy colleagues. She is frustrated that women who speak out are being disempowered and cast as victims. If women complain of a man putting a hand on her knee or an unwanted hug, she feels the result is that women are treated as fragile and needing protection. She wants to see women either tell the groper to sod off, or for a network of women to keep a list of whom to avoid and for women to have each other’s back.

I add the daily headlines about sexually offensive celebrities to the headlines of non-famous people who molest children, rape women, and kidnap girls into sexual slavery and so on and so forth, and I feel like the percentage of men that are trustworthy may be much lower than I suspected. Or is this headline distortion? I also feel for all the women triggered by this barrage of news--when so many have their own hidden wounds.

I take Carolyn’s point, yet so many women feel like their job may be jeopardised if they speak up. The bigger issue is the institutional structures that keep men in power who have been shown to abuse their position.

I spent the day working on Great Victoria Street at the offices of Carbon Disclosure Project, not far from St. Paul’s Cathedral. A lot of tourists are having their photos taken with a more innocent celebrity at St. Paul’s.

These are internet photos. When I was there, people were lining up to have their photo taken with Paddington.

After a day working with my new boss, David Murray, I went back to Carolyn’s, where she was singing with her madrigal choir. I lay in bed scrolling through Facebook while the five of them sang a lovely medley of holy music. What a wonderful way to end the day.
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